Shazam 2 stumbles with $30.5 million debut at US box office

“Shazam! Fury of Gods” felt fury of marketplace in its atrical debut this weekend. New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. superhero movie opened to a disappointing $30.5 million from over 4,071 atres.

“Shazam!” sequel fell short of its modest expectations ($35 million) as well as first film in series ($53.5 million in April 2019), and earned a place on very low end of modern DC comics movie launches, between “Birds of Prey” ($33 million in February 2020) and “ Suicide Squad” ($26.2 million in August 2021), both of which were R-rated.

Directed by David F. Sandberg, “Shazam! Fury of Gods” brought back Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Adam Brody and Djimon Hounsou, and added Helen Mirren, Rachel Zegler and Lucy Liu. Critics, many of whom found first film charming, were largely underwhelmed by this outing. It currently holds a 53% Rotten Tomatoes critic score.

Audiences were more positive about sequel, giving it a B+ CinemaScore overall. Younger crowds were even more favourable.

“Shazam! Fury of Gods” cost a reported $125 million to produce, t factoring in marketing and promotion costs. DC shop at Warner Bros. has been going through a major recalibration for past several months, with new bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran forging a path ahead for DC Universe that will officially kick off with a new “Superman” in 2025. “Shazam! 2” was one of several holdovers of old regime, which includes “ Flash” coming in June and a new “Aquaman” in December.

Second place went to “Scream IV” in its second weekend in atres. horror pic, distributed by Paramount, fell 61% from its debut and added $17.5 million, bringing its domestic total to $76 million.

In its third weekend, “Creed III” grossed an additional $15.3 million to land in . 3 spot. film, directed by and starring Michael B. Jordan has w earned $127.7 million in rth America.

Following its Oscar sweep last Sunday, A24 added over 1,000 screens for an encore “ Everything Everywhere All At Once ” run, where it earned an additional $1.2 million. “ Whale,” for which Brendan Fraser won best actor, played on 509 screens and made $145,230.